Friday Recap: “Goodbye, Cruel World” Edition

As many of you may know, the end of the world starts this weekend. Susan tells me she does not plan on coming into work on Monday if she’s left behind. I probably won’t either, so this could be the last entry in our blog. Now, THAT’S a sad story. But, we still have a responsibility to create a Friday Recap, so let’s get to it.

Since the world is ending and all, you may want to quickly read our May SEO Newsletter — it hasn’t even gone out to our subscribers yet, so here’s your sneak peek:

1) This month’s feature story is all about social share buttons and how they can help spread the word about all the great information on your website to the people who want it.
2) Our Back to Basics focuses on local SEO on a budget, and how businesses can still power market without a website.
3) Bruce Clay Australia talks about the best SEO apps for iPhone, with reviews and staff picks.

And of course, we have all our usual news features, like Hot Topics, which focuses on the benefits and disadvantages of cloud storage, Word on the Wire, Shuffles, Shindigs and Attaboys.

Newsflash: People do not want to receive phone books anymore except country folk, according to this post in The New Yorker. In fact, Seattle even ruled in a court of law that citizens now have the right to opt out of delivery. Since Monday, 100,000 people have opted out, according to the report. The Yellow Pages’ lobby group, dubbed “The Local Search Association,” (ha) continues to fight.

But, wait! Andrew Shotland of Local SEO Guide paints a prettier picture of the Yellow Pages service, as he confesses to using the darn things in a pinch and it actually saved the day – on more than one occasion. [I used mine the other day! I dropped it on a giant spider that was trying to kill me! –Susan]

It looks as though Apple is gearing up to provide a fully licensed cloud-based music service. The service would be similar to the concept that Google and Amazon have both created, but with potentially much more functionality due to the license factor.

Facebook lifted some of its ad restrictions for industries such as gas, dairy, pharmaceuticals, alcohol and gambling. This post from ClickZ reports restrictions that include marketing to minors, talking about side effects of phamaceuticals, running contests that require a purchase and more, all have been lifted. Marty Weintraub of aimClear weighs in, saying the lifted restrictions are a result of Facebook cleaning up the spam that used to be a big issue in the past, or as he puts it, “the crap has been cleaned out of the pool.”

LinkedIn went public yesterday to the tune of about $94 per share at the close of the New York Stock Exchange. LinkedIn waited eight years to go public; the social network’s backers own about $5 billion in the company.

Yesterday, ReelSEO.com explored the rise of social video advertising and why you should care. This type of “ad” is a video that has the components that give it potential to go viral, but are ultimately backed by a brand. Think the Old Spice campaign. They contribute to the bottom line, but do so in a less obvious way than traditional ads.

Best friends in the UK discovered they were half sisters after one of them, who was an adopted child, tracked down her biological father. First the brothers who found each other during a photo opp in Hawaii and now this — what’s up with all these people accidentally discovering long-lost siblings lately?

In trying to prepare people for disaster through a clever “zombie apocalypse” campaign, the CDC forgot to prepare for potential boatloads of traffic that crashed the site. BTW, what’s your zombie plan? [I hope it’s not relying on Milla Jovovich. She’s taking the weekend off. –Susan]

3 responses to “Friday Recap: “Goodbye, Cruel World” Edition”

I was happy to see Matteo Lopez’s doodle on Google since I had voted for it. Additionally, I am generally pleased that the world did not end, although I would have liked to have taken today off work as well.

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